I get to decide how to spend these hours when I would normally be at work. I choose to spend them staying warm and also thinking warm.
One of the things that warms me most is thinking about the generosity of so many who contribute to our Operation Christmas Child shoe boxes. Pictured above is a big bin of Beanie Babies that were donated to me this week by my friend Denise. It warms me to think of what a blessing they will be and the warmth they will bring to boys and girls who may never have owned toys before. I'm getting ready to sort them and bask in that warm feeling.
I also decided to check the concordance in the back of my Bible (admittedly it's a scanty concordance) to look for some verses about warmth. Of course there's the one in Ecclesiastes 4:11 "if two lie down together they keep warm, but how can one be warm alone." Lots of practical survival wisdom there.
But I also found an interesting verse in Haggai 1:6 that a challenge for us in our materialistic society, "You have sown much, but harvest little; you eat, but there is not enough to be satisfied; you drink, but there is not enough to become drunk; you put on clothing, but no one is warm enough; and he who earns, earns wages to be put into a purse with holes."
The prophet goes on to explain that because the people have had cold hearts and neglected God and His work they can never be warm or satisfied. He calls them to repentance and a return to the Lord. Very good warming advice indeed.
The best image of warmth I found are Jesus' words in Luke 13:34 when He says with grief, "O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, the city that kills the prophets and stones those sent to her! How often I wanted to gather your children together, just as a hen gathers her brood under her wings, and you would not have it!"
Now there is the place of warmth--under the shelter of His wings. I want to cozy up there today. Will you join me?
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